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£25,000 benefits cap

466 replies

Xenia · 05/10/2010 06:48

Average family has £26,000 to live on including housing. So from 2013 the most benefits available for one family will be £26,000 including housing benefit. Sounds like a sensible plan. Well done George Osborne. How did we ever get to a contrary position in the first place?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11463435

OP posts:
2shoes · 05/10/2010 10:49

oh I know, it is all the woe it is me threads at the moment, everyone in a tiss over CB. and now moaning about old people, next it will be those lazy disabled people(and all posters will know someone who fiddles)

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 05/10/2010 11:04

bubblerock - How many working families get £25000 in benefits?

Ronaldinhio · 05/10/2010 11:05

it's all very difficult atm

i find it very hard to accept that people think that the tories are doing this to get us out of a hole
this is traditional tory policy
added to their policy making they have The Hell writing stories of benefits scrounger monster wrongdoers getting a billion pounds second from the benefit system
makes everything they are proposing seem much more palatable

i hate how easy it is to sway public opinion and how self centred and inward looking we all are
they are going to cut swathes of help from those who need it most and crappy misplaced jealousy and inflammatory propaganda will allow them to do so unchecked

bb99 · 05/10/2010 11:06

Maybe the trick isn't the amount of benefit for people who are capeable of working, or even accessing work. IMO I think the trick is to get people to want to support themselves and their families, if they are able to (eg. people WITHOUT disabilities that prevent them from working, as there are many people with disablilites who do work and want to work, or those who are saving the country millions of pounds by being under appreciated careers for people with disabilities)

In the Netherlands I believe you are EXPECTED to restart work or retrain to enable you to start work if you have children and are supported financially by the state, when your youngest child reaches school age. Even if this is just to top up the benefits you recieve, or to earn an extra few pounds a week above what you would receive on benefits.

If you don't your benefits are cut - effectively you are fined. You are given help and support to make these changes to your lifestyle, but the EXPECTATION is there that this is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY as an adult eg you should support yourself as an adult and you should support your family if you are at all able to.

Also if you are on benefits, you automatically have a government bank account set up - none of this nonsense with fruity vouchers, as people are expected to be responsible for themselves and manage their benefit money effeciently and they are trusted to make adult, responsible decisions about what they feed their kids etc.

So their model uses a financial incentive (you lose money for non-compliance) plus support to get back to being financially independant, whilst treating benefit claimants as responsible adults - giving them bank accounts and the choice to spend their money as they will.

I do agree that benefits (for able individuals) shouldn't be more than the MODE wage ie the most common wage in the country, which is probably below £25,000, or the dual income minimum wage idea could work.

2shoes · 05/10/2010 11:07

Ronaldinhio you are so right, having seen a lot of the omg how will i manage posts on the CB threads, I can for see a lot of benefit bashing on the horizon.

bb99 · 05/10/2010 11:08

If not many people get over £25,000 in benefit then this won't hurt many people will it TCNY?

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 05/10/2010 11:12

bb99 - that is my point.

2shoes · 05/10/2010 11:12

tbh I don't think they will cut benefits for the severely disabled, they will just make people like dd prove it!!
Even DC and his ilk will realize surely that if you take away cares/ DLA/ cb/ ctc, then a lot of families will have no choice but to put their child into residential care, and that will cost heaps more (bit off topic but I wanted to get it out there)

I would love to know how people get £26 thousand on benefits.
we are on them at the moment as dh has no work(but has just been told there should be some soon:o) and it isn't living it is scraping by.
when you are on them for a short time it isn't so bad as if you are lucky you have a bit of savings, but I have no idea how people manage long term.

bubblerock · 05/10/2010 11:15

I don't know to be honest coalition, I'm just guessing that if you get HB, CTC, WFTC, Council Tax Benefit, Child benefit, several children and work on minimum wage then you would be pretty close, if one parent is working then the income will be low but if both are working then the childcare costs will be high. Like I said, I don't know - maybe it won't affect as many as I thought, would be interesting to hear from those on £25k + benefits and get their perspective. Confused

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 05/10/2010 11:22

bubblerock - The cap is on benefit not total income.

carriedababi · 05/10/2010 11:28

i'm more interested in what can be done to help the working poor.

25k a year in benefits, equavlient to earning 35kk.

is still alot more than the 20 2 adults can earn both working ft on mim wage.

how can that be right?

Scottie04 · 05/10/2010 11:29

They wouldn't admit it on here.
Shocking that people work hard to get £40 k (Take home £30k approx) Pay for everything and yet some bludger can get given £25 k a year and not pay for anyhting.
(I know there are lots of people not getting this - but there are just as many who know how the system works)

bb99 · 05/10/2010 11:29

Sorry TCNY - thought I'd clarify Smile

carriedababi · 05/10/2010 11:34

quite right scottie.

i agree

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 05/10/2010 11:38

Working poor get tax credits don't they? And possibly Housing benefit/council tax benefit etc.

2shoes · 05/10/2010 11:41

"bludger"

and so it begins

carriedababi · 05/10/2010 11:42

do they? i don't know
nobody seems to give a shit about them though.

but why are companys allowed to get away with paying people less than a living wage?

perhaps the min wage should be increased?

what do you think?

carriedababi · 05/10/2010 11:44

2shoes, i don;'t think anyone [in their rightmind] would accuse someone that cares for someone disabled or sick as a bludger.

pretty much everyone agree people that need this help should get more.

bubblerock · 05/10/2010 11:50

DH works on minimum wage - brings home about £11k per annum we get tax credits.

carriedababi · 05/10/2010 11:52

do they bring you up a 25k/35k wage then?

do you feel supported enough bubblerock?

Siasl · 05/10/2010 11:52

25k/year is 35k/year in pre-tax terms. Far far too high. If we brought it down to something sensible (say 10k/year) then perhaps there might be more money to go around for those who really need it.

carriedababi · 05/10/2010 11:52

and bubble do you think his employers should be made to pay him a higher wage, increase min wage?

bubblerock · 05/10/2010 11:59

No they don't but we don't claim Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit or get any extras such as the uniform grants, free school dinners, free computer etc.. because DH works. I am grateful for the help we receive although I would like more support with my 'disability' but that's a whole new subject Hmm

bubblerock · 05/10/2010 12:03

Carrie, I don't think the company would be able to increase wages and still continue to be honest - it would be nice to get extra for bank hols though, he works 13 hour shifts Mon & Tue and gets no extra for BH's

Mummasmurf · 05/10/2010 12:04

I knew from day one of the con-dem government that all this lot was coming, I keep boring my husband by saying 'people don't know what's going to hit them'.

I really think the "budget deficit crisis" is a good excuse for the tories to implement the policies they always wanted, now they have a supposedly legitimate peg to hang it on.

Its just the start, you don't know what's going to hit you.